Okay, let’s be frank. Given the original plan to open to open this project in Summer 2018, the new Cayuga Medical Associates building is running well behind schedule. It’ll be a substantial effort to have it ready for occupancy by the start of 2019, and given all that still needs to be done, early spring may be more likely for the 28,200 SF medical office building.

Most of the smaller windows are in place, but the storefront-style windows, with expansive panes of clear and translucent glass, have yet to be installed. None of the doors appear to have been installed yet either. Some of the aluminum coping has been attached to the edges of the roof, and most but not all of the standing seam metal roof is in place. The entrance canopy is also on the to-do list. Note that the blue waterproofing around the window openings will be covered over with the same dark grey aluminum coping used on the roof, while those waterproofed areas within the rough window openings will be faced with spandrel glass.

The off-white face brick does seem to make the building appear less imposing. Its size was one of the major concerns when going through the Cayuga Heights planning board. It’s hard to say how the interior is coming along, but I’d guess most utilities rough-ins are either complete or in progress (and many of the rough openings are sheathed in plastic to limit the chill and disruption of November’s winds). Most of the curbing and some of the new parking lot paving has been finished, but no plantings are in place yet, and at this late, cold point inthe season, the development team may just wait until early spring to fill out the landscaping.

From a site plan perspective, you can see a number of substantial changes – some townhouse buildings were lengthened in the southern corner, other strings shortened or broken up, the clubhouse/community building is now a mixed-use structure, and a couple of townhouse strings were deleted outright. About the only portion that was unchanged was the trio of structures closest to Dryden Road.

The early working name for this project was “Fall Creek Village”, which while referencing Fall Creek just to its north, may not have been a wise choice given the neighborhood of Fall Creek in Ithaca, which has been the epicenter for Ithaca’s gentrification. It was suggested they change the name, ideally to something with “Varna” in it. There’s about a hundred other pros, cons and general thoughts shared during the meeting, which can be read here. The project team would like to have approvals by the end of the fall, for a Spring 2019 – August 2020 construction period. As all the paperwork is filed, reviewed and discussed, expect more revisions to the project before any final approval is considered and granted.

2. Tompkins Financial may have relocated all its operations to its new headquarters, but that doesn’t mean its the end of the road for its old properties. 1051 Craft Road, formerly home to the Tompkins Insurance Agency, was sold to Ithaca Dermatology Associates of Ithaca on June 5th for $1.2 million. The 7,541 SF building was built in 1995 and assessed at $990,000, so Tompkins Trust did okay with the sale price – they purchased the building for $965,000 in 2007.

The new chapter is, as you might’ve already guessed, medical office and service space. With the assistance of a $1.5 million construction loan from Tompkins Trust, the Ithaca Dermatology is renovating the building for its new clinic. The hard cost of the renovations (materials/labor) is $1.025 million, and the spruced up facilities are expected to be open by January. Local architecture firm Chiang O’Brien, who have a specialty in medical facilities (they did Cornell Health’s new building and Planned Parenthood’s new regional HQ) is designing the renovated space, and Hammond Heating and Plumbing is the contractor.

6. Color me intrigued – does Pat Kraft have a tenant lined up for the ground level of his Dryden South building at 205 Dryden Road? I have yet to see paperwork, but we’ll see.

7. It appears the Stavropoulos family, local landlords who have undertaken several smaller-scale projects in recent years, are about to add to their holdings. It would appear they are buying out Jagat Sharma’s properties as the well-known Collegetown architect heads into retirement (since he’s almost 80, I can’t blame him). The Stavropoulos purchased a four-unit house at 208-210 Prospect Street from Sharma this week (for $480k, well above the $350k assessed), and an LLC notice was posted recently for 312 East Seneca LLC, which is registered to the Stavropouloses’ home address. 312 East Seneca is also the office of Sharma Architecture (and the cat cafe), and was eyed as a potential Visum acquisition for its Seneca Flats mixed-use plan at 201 North Aurora Street (Visum has conceptual plans for versions with and without Sharma’s lot, so this sale doesn’t kill their plans, though not having the property shrinks it somewhat).

II. Develop a proposal for a municipal matching fund to help with grant writing for affordable housing, zoning improvement and infrastructure to serve affordable housing.

III. Planning staff will conduct an infill site analysis in development focus areas (Downtown, State Street Corridor). This would potentially find opportunities in surplus or underused county property that may be developed as affordable housing through an RFP process.

IV. Planning Staff will participate in the Policy Lab Study (“Jennifer and George’s Study”) to provide data and help inform the client committee. I honestly have no idea what this refers to.

It appears that TFC’s new headquarters is just about done – from the outside, paving, landscaping and signage is about all that’s left. The signage plan, a fairly conservative “halo” style courtesy of Ithaca Sign Works, can be seen on the city’s website here.

Design-wise, it has a solid if conservative appearance, befitting of a stable, button-up corporation. HOLT Architects added a modern touch with the windows, and created visual interest by contrasting the dark grey brick with the tan brick, beige face stone and grey aluminum panels. The building height and dimension occupy an intermediate size between the DeWitt Mall and Seneca Place, which allows it to be imposing without being overbearing.

The Sleep Inn project was first introduced in Spring 2016, and underwent substantial aesthetic revisions to a more detail, rustic appearance. Even then, the project was barely approved by the Planning Board, which had concerns about its height, relatively small lot size and proximity to the Buttermilk Falls Natural Area. The hotel’s developer, Pratik Ahir of Ahir Hotels, co-owns the Rodeway Inn further down Elmira Road. Both the Rodeway and Sleep Inn are Choice Hotels brands, so although the Sleep Inn brand is new to the area (and uncommon in upstate New York), it’s not as unusual as it seems. Given the size, a 12-month buildout seems reasonable. Look for updates as the project gets underway.

3. The problem with tight publishing deadlines is that if a quote doesn’t arrive in time, you can either put it in afterward as an updated statement, or it gets left out. So on the heels of the report that Visum Development Group is upstate New York’s fastest growing company in terms of revenue (Inc.com’s guidelines were three-year period 2014-16 and at least $100,000 in revenue to start), I wanted to share this for those who might have missed the article update. The statement comes courtesy of Todd Fox, who was asked for comment and responded the following day.

“I would love to acknowledge the Visum team because without them I would never be able to accomplish what I am doing. I’m blessed to have the most passionate and talented people I have ever met. Chris Petrillose is my longest running team member and is the backbone of operations. I also want to acknowledge Patrick Braga, Matt Tallarico, Marissa Vivenzio, and Piotr Nowakowski. They are all rock stars and deserve so much of the credit for our success!

We are currently looking to expand into several new markets, which are as far south as Sarasota Florida and as far west as Boise Idaho. For the Ithaca market, we are essentially hitting the breaks on student housing for Cornell, as we beginning to experience some softening in the market. Our new focus is on for-sale condos and moderate-affordable rentals. We actually have multiple properties under contract and plan to bring about 1,000 to 2,000 new beds online over the next several years.”

Note the last parts. The market for student housing if softening. Visum will focus on for-sale condos and moderate-affordable rentals, things Ithaca could use more of, and 1,000 to 2,000 beds would certainly make a dent in the housing deficit. Of course, proof is in the pudding, so we’ll see what happens over the next several years.

4. The town of Ithaca was less than pleased about Maplewood’s request to extend indoor working hours until 10:30 PM. Labor, weather and building supply (wood frame) issues were cited as reasons for the needed extension. The Ithaca Times’ Matt Butler, who was at the meeting, provided this quote:

Okaaaay, little bit of fire here at Town Planning Board, where member Linda Collins just said to the Maplewood Redevelopment team: “You’re supposed to be the project managers and wow, that has not been going well.”

For the purpose of this blog, I asked about the design beside Angela Sullivan and Senator Schumer – it is a conceptual design for demonstrative purposes, and a location for a new facility has not yet been fully determined. However, they intend to send a press release once a site has been selected.

6. New to the market this week, “Clockworks Plaza” at 402 Third Street in the city of Ithaca’s Northside neighborhood. The 12,821 SF building was one of the few sizable buildings built in Ithaca in the 1990s (1993, to be exact), and is on the market for $2.6 million. The current owner, masked by an LLC, bought the property for $1.5 million in April 2016, the same value for which it is assessed.

7. It looks likely fewer people will be living in City Centre than first intended. The initial 192-unit mix was 61 studios, 78 one-bedrooms and 53 two-bedrooms. The newly-proposed mix is 33 studios, 120 one-bedrooms, and 39 two-bedrooms. It also appears the retail space has been reconfigured from four spaces to three, though the overall square footage appears to be about the same. There are some minor exterior changes proposed as well; paver colors, lighting, the types of metal panel used (Alucoil to Overly Dimension XP and Larson ACM panels), landscaping, and exterior vents. Assuming the PDF is accurate, the panel change is slight, but gives the building a slightly darker grey facade. Some of these changes are in response to code and safety discussions, others are likely value engineering.

The first is that it appears Benderson is expanding South Meadow Square again. Along with the pair of endcap additions underway, the Buffalo-based retail giant is looking to add a 3,200 SF addition to the west endcap of one of its smaller retail strings. The addition is on the Chipotle/CoreLife strip, next to Firehouse Subs. The dumpster enclosure currently on-site will be relocated to the Panera strip across the road to make room for the building, which will be flush to the sidewalk with…a blank wall. Seems like a bit of a missed opportunity there. The 35′ x 92′ addition has no announced tenant, though 3,200 SF is reasonable for a smaller restaurant or retail space (Chipotle is 2,400 SF, for instance, and Panera 4,100 SF; the stores in this particular retail strip, which includes a vitamin store, tanning salon and barber shop, are in the range of 1,380-4,089 SF). The total project cost is only $132,000, and no construction period is given in the Site Plan Review document.

The second is a “pocket neighborhood” in Northside. Barken Family Realty of Ithaca is planning to renovate two existing homes at 207 and 209 First Street, and add a new 2,566 SF two-family home behind the properties. They would be set up as a “pocket neighborhood”, consolidated into a single tax parcel with a common area, picnic tables and raised plant beds. The fence would be repaired and the gravel driveways improved. No demolition is planned, but five mature trees would come down to make way for the new home (6-8 new trees will be planted).

Hamel Architects of Aurora designed the new duplex, which is intended to quietly fit into the neighborhood context. Each unit will be two bedrooms. The $265,000 project would be built from October 2018 to March 2019.

About the only major exterior facade work left on Tompkins Financial’s new headquarters is the stone veneer on the front face. I don’t have information on file on what kind of stone it is apart from a generic “stone veneer” description. It may be cast stone, a concrete masonry product mixed and molded to resemble natural-cut stone.

Over the blue and black air/vapor barriers, Dow TUFF-R polyiso rigid foam insulating boards are being laid between rails. Atop those, a second set of steel rails, called continuous anchors, are attached to the building. When the polyiso is attached and the rails are screwed on, the stone panels are slid into place, and then they’re mortared or caulked with silicone. There will be a gap between the polyiso and the stone that serves as a drainage cavity for water that gets absorbed and needs to be eliminated. The whole process is about keeping moisture from seeping inward and damaging the more sensitive building materials like the gypsum boards, while allowing any latent moisture in the materials (having been exposed to the elements during construction) to escape outward.

The entrance canopy is up, and steel clasps for the sunshade installs on the front are ready for when the facade is nearing completion. The lights are on, and one can presume that with three months left in the schedule, most of the big interior tasks (utilities, drywall, fixtures) have been completed. Parts of the granite base appear to be in place, but most of the ground floor and its parking area remain a work in progress.

It’s also important to look at the larger trends in the local market. In Ithaca’s case, office space is typically small-scale, and very little is built without a tenant already in mind. Ithaca’s economy is growing steadily, but since meds and eds just build their own space, and tech jobs tend to be “asset light”, the demand for rental office space isn’t growing much. Also, with Tompkins Trust Company building a new headquarters a couple blocks away, which would consolidate several rented spaces into their spacious new digs, it looked likely that there would be a glut of office space by the end of the decade.

According to a press release, the fourth and fifth floors will retain a traditional layout, while floors three, six and seven will move to an open-office format. CFCU will host a service branch on the ground floor. New windows, communications systems, and high-efficient utilities will be installed in the building. The sixth and seventh floors appear to be spec space, with tenants TBD.

On the ground and second floors, it appears the lobby area is being opened up to give it a more spacious feel, and interior demolition work continues, given the rubble chute off the side of 111 North Tioga Street.